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Denair students to receive three free meals a day

ANGELINA MARTIN

Turlock Journal

Updated:
July 27, 2018, 9:57 p.m.

For the first time ever, students enrolled in the Denair
Unified School District will receive three free meals each day starting this
school year.

Nearly half of the roughly 1,300 students at the district’s
four campuses meet requirements for the United States Department of
Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision, which allows schools located in
low-income areas to provide free breakfast, lunch and an after-school snack to
all students. A district qualifies for the program if more than 40 percent of
families in its attendance area are enrolled in Medi-Cal, and students also
qualify if they are certified as homeless, runaway, migrant, foster or are
enrolled in a federally-funded Head Start program.

In addition to free, nutritious meals for students, there
are many other benefits to the program, DUSD Superintendent Terry Metzger said,
including a stigma-free environment for both kids in the lunch line and their
parents at home.

“It helps fight that stigmatization of the ‘free lunch’
line,” Metzger said. “There are some families that need assistance but feel
like there are people who might be needier than them who can benefit from the
program, even though they’re in a tough situation, or they just don’t want to
apply to the school district and have to say their kids need extra help.

“It protects the family’s privacy and makes sure that all of
our kids can get what they need so that they’re ready to learn.”

Denair’s participation and the federal and state
reimbursements will save the district an estimated $5,000 this school year in
food subsidies. Prior to receiving funding, school lunches in Denair cost $2.35
per student, per day.

“For Denair it’s pretty important because we’ve been in
financial stress for many years,” Metzger said. “The district has made many
changes during that time, saving money, cutting corners here and there, and
this is just something else where we can say we’re saving a bit of money.”

Free breakfast and lunch will be served at all of Denair’s
cafeterias — Denair Elementary Charter Academy, Denair Middle School and Denair
High School. Denair Charter Academy will also have access to free meals at the
elementary or high school cafeteria and after-school snacks for all students
will be available at the middle school cafeteria.

“We all know that kids who have their basic needs met are
better learners,” Metzger said. “That’s the bottom line.”